I’m thrilled to report that at Saturday’s Grandma’s Marathon I knocked 19 minutes off my previous year’s time (and 18 off my PR at TCM last year) to finish in 3:29:28. My brother-in-law also broke 3:30, as we set out to do, by running negative splits for the last 10K.

We’re basking in our accomplishment, you can bet. But as soon as we can comfortably climb stairs again, we have to start preparing ourselves for the next race: The inaugural Grand Island Trail Marathon on July 30.

We have no intention of “racing” Grand Island. We just want to be able to say we did the first one. But we’ll probably also want to finish in about 4 hours.

Any advice for how best to recover from one marathon, train and then taper for another in just six weeks?

Seriously, at Grandma’s we did what we set out to do this year. Grand Island is meant to be fun — although it could be grueling because it is a trail run with water stops six miles apart (we’ll have to carry our own).

So we don’t want to kill ourselves. Afterall, we’ve got Chicago to run in the fall! There we’ll probably go after another PR.

Too ambitious? Maybe so, but we’re expecting to increase our weekly base as previous recommended by you folks. I just don’t expect to start doing that until after July 30.

What do y’all think the two of us should be doing between now and then? Are there any good training programs for marathons this close to one another?

hopefully you did the ice bath thing and refueled really well… I think those two things and walking later in the day are the best way to start your recoup process…

as for training check out HalHigdon.com… he has several sections of different levels of marathon training including one section for multiple marathons… your schedule sounds incredibly busy, good luck with not only the quick turn arounds but a trail run…

Phitz has a great training program specifically designed for multiple marathons six weeks apart. I don’t know where to find it online, but they can be found in the runner’s desk reference known as Advanced Marathoning. Check it out. It appears to allow for sufficient recovery but won’t let your fitness level fall.